Redemption

CARRIE

1999—Petuma, Arizona

The trailer door hung open. She’d only been gone an hour. Carrie’s stomach twisted as she ran up the steps. Heart thumping against her chest, she dashed to the crib. His tiny blue blanket lay in a heap. Frantic, she searched the rest of the trailer for any sign of her child.

Six months of her mother being clean of drugs should not have influenced her decision. Going against her better judgment, she handed the most precious thing in the world over to her mother while she went to get formula. Sixty minutes, one hour. Long enough to change Carrie’s life forever.

A commotion outside made her freeze. High-pitched laughter rang out, followed by the slam of a car door. An engine roared as its tires spit gravel along the side of the metal trailer. Her panic spread as she hurried to the door. Her mother stumbled in, her arms empty, her eyes lit with euphoria from crack cocaine.

The knot in Carrie’s stomach grew tighter. She grabbed her mother’s arm, fingers digging into her mother’s flesh. “Where is he? Where is Bobby? What did you do with my son?”

She pulled away, jerked her arm free and slammed Carrie aside. Carrie lost her balance and fell to the floor.

Her mother held up her bleeding arm where Carrie’s nails had punctured her skin. “Look what you did to me, you little bitch.”

Carrie scrambled to her feet and came at her mother again. “I said, where’s Bobby?” Her voice rose in pitch as her hysteria grew.

Her mother stared blankly at her. “Stop your whining. He’s in a better place.”

Carrie’s blood turned to ice. Her legs grew weak, threatening to collapse beneath her. “A … a better place? What are you talking about? I swear, if you did something to him, I’ll kill you. Do you hear me? I’ll kill you!”

“Oh, stop your fussing. You ought to be ashamed. Fifteen years old and carrying a baby around. He’s fine. Bobby’s with good people now. He’ll have a better life than you could ever give him.”

She pushed past Carrie and flopped onto the brown plaid sofa. Carrie tore across the room and pounced. She reached out and snatched her mother’s hair, dragging her off the sofa. They both hit the floor, Carrie on top, pinning her down.

“You tell me where he is right now, or I swear to God, I’ll break every bone in your body!”

In the end, there were no broken bones that day. Instead, pain and guilt took hold inside when Carrie learned her mother sold her son to a couple passing through in exchange for two thousand dollars which she promptly spent part on drugs.

The police launched an investigation, but the couple, who so callously bought her child, had disappeared. They charged her mother, and she was sentenced to ten years in jail.

Over and over again, Carrie berated herself. One hour. What she wouldn’t give to turn back the clock and undo what she had done.

Leaving her child with her mother that day turned out to be the worst decision of her life. Or, so she thought. Travis Montgomery was about to prove her wrong.